Sly Cooper

Sly Cooper
The series logo beginning from the second game in the series. All subsequent games use a similar logo.
Genres	Platform, Stealth
Developers	Sanzaru Games (2010-present)[1] Nihilistic Software (2011) Sucker Punch Productions (2002-2010)
Publishers	Sony Computer Entertainment
Platforms	PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita
First release	Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus September 23, 2002
Latest release	Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time February 5, 2013

Sly Cooper is a series of platform stealth video games for the Sony PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The series was developed by Sucker Punch Productions for the first three games, and then it was passed on to Sanzaru Games while Sucker Punch continued work on the Infamous series. The series was remastered into High Definition for the PlayStation 3 on one disc by the new developer, Sanzaru Games. Sanzaru released the fourth game in the series, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time on February 5, 2013.^[2] A CGI animated film based on the series is currently in development for a theatrical release sometime in Q1 2016.^[3][4]

Setting

The world of Sly Cooper is a version of the real world that is populated by anthropomorphic animals, with film noir and comic book motifs. The focus of the story is of Sly Cooper, a young adult raccoon and the latest descendant in a line of master thieves who pass down their expert techniques from generation to generation using the "Thievius Raccoonus," a book which contains all the Cooper family's secrets and tricks. While the Cooper family has accumulated a massive amount of wealth through their thieving ways, Sly places greater value on his friendship with his partners, Bentley, a turtle and Murray, a hippo, and his flirting and teasing relationship with Inspector Carmelita Fox.

Games

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, also known as Sly Raccoon in European countries, was released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2 platform. Sly must recover his family's "Thievius Raccoonus", a book listing all the special thieving skills his family has collected over several centuries, which was stolen by a rival gang, the Fiendish Five, led by Clockwerk, a mechanical owl, the "manifestation of evil". Meanwhile, Sly and his gang must keep ahead of Interpol Inspector Carmelita Fox, who promises to one day capture Sly and put him away for his crimes.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Sly 2: Band of Thieves was released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2. In this game, a series of mechanical parts of the shattered Clockwerk have been stolen by the Klaww Gang; Dimitri, Rajan, Contessa, Jean Bison and Arpeggio. Together, they could be used to revive the defeated Clockwerk; separately, they each have super functions. While Sly and his gang follow these leads, they are pursued by Carmelita and her new partner, Constable Neyla, who are after both the Cooper Gang and the Klaww Gang.

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 platform. Sly has learned of the Cooper Vault, a gigantic store of the wealth that his family has accumulated over the years. He must find a way to get in, however, to defeat Doctor M, who has taken over the island where it is located to try to break into it, with many failed attempts. Sly must regroup his old partners and recruit new members in order to succeed at reclaiming his family's history, all while still on the run from Carmelita.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time was officially announced during Sony's 2011 E3 Keynote, and was officially released on February 5, 2013.^[15] Sly Cooper and the whole gang return with an epic brand new adventure for the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita^[16] systems. The pages of the Thievius Raccoonus are disappearing and Bentley, now keeper of the ancient tome Thievius Raccoonus, must round up the gang and save the Cooper Clan legacy from being destroyed forever. The game was developed by Sanzaru Games, the same development team behind The Sly Cooper Collection, instead of Sucker Punch Productions who are focusing on the Infamous series.^[1] If players unlock the game's secret ending, a clip is shown that hints at a potential future installment in the series, though no official announcement has been made at this time.

Others

The Sly Collection

The Sly Collection
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Sucker Punch Productions Sanzaru Games (port)
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment America
Series	Sly Cooper
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3
Release date(s)	NA 20101109November 9, 2010 AU 20101202December 2, 2010 EU 20101203December 3, 2010 JP 20110127January 27, 2011
Genre(s)	Platform, Stealth
Mode(s)	Single-player
Distribution	Blu-ray Disc, Download

The Sly Collection (titled as The Sly Trilogy in PAL regions and Sly Cooper Collection in Asia) is a remastered port of the PlayStation 2 games Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Sly 2: Band of Thieves and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, for the PlayStation 3 on a single Blu-ray Disc as a Classics HD title. The games were originally developed by Sucker Punch Productions, while the port was handled by Sanzaru Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America. On November 29, 2011, The Sly Collection was released as a digital download on the PlayStation Store. Each title in the collection is available for separate purchase. The collection also includes a set of mini games, with their own set of trophies.

Remastered features

The core game and story for all games remains unchanged with the remastered versions. For the remastering, all three games have had a graphics overhaul to allow them to support modern 720p resolution. When in 3D mode the games run at 30fps, while in normal mode, the games run 60fps. All three of the games also have trophies, with one platinum each.

Other features

PlayStation Move supported mini-games and 3D support are available in the Collection, as well as trophies. Upon completing every game in the Collection, a Sly 4 teaser trailer is unlocked. However, these features are not available in the downloadable version.

Development

Sanzaru Games, who developed the collection, was working on a demo of the then unknown Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, a new PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita exclusive Sly Cooper title, while Sucker Punch Productions, the developers of the original PlayStation 2 games continued to work on the inFamous series. Sony was impressed with the prototype and gave them the development duties for the PlayStation 3 conversion of the original trilogy. In June 2010, The Sly Collection was announced for a Q3/Q4 2010 release. It was released on November 9, 2010 and is available to purchase from the PlayStation Store as of November 29, 2011. On April 20, 2013, an ESRB rating for a PS Vita port of the Sly Collection was spotted online.^[17]

Reception

The Sly Collection was generally well received by critics; GamesRadar's Brett Elston gave it 9/10, stating "this is both a great deal and a much-deserved reintroduction to a fantastic set of seemingly forgotten games". IGN gave the game a score of 8.5/10 and an "Editors Choice Award". Eurogamer gave it 9/10 and PlayStation: The Official Magazine gave it 9/10 and stated "In a rare instance of low price and high quality colliding, this one's a steal worthy of Sly's thieving skills." It was IGN's PlayStation 3 game of the year for 2010.

PlayStation Move Heroes

Another game announced at E3 2010 was PlayStation Move Heroes, features Sly and Bentley, along with Jak and Daxter and Ratchet & Clank, in a crossover title; the game uses PlayStation Move.^[21] It was released March 22, 2011 in North America.^[22]

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

Sly Cooper appears as a playable character in the crossover fighting game PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. In the game's arcade mode, Sly finds that several pages from the Thievius Racconus have been stolen, and begins battling the other fighters in attempt to locate them, including a rival battle with Nathan Drake. The Sly Cooper version of Paris also appears as one of the game's stages. Additionally, Bentley assists Sly with his Level 3 Super attack, Murray appears as an unlockable minion and as part of Sly's Level 1 Super attack, and Carmelita appears as a downloadable minion and stage hazard in the "Alden's Tower" stage.

Bentley's Hackpack

Bentley's Hackpack is a collection of the various hacking mini-games found in the main campaign mode of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, with many more levels, challenges, and prizes.^[23] It was developed Sanzaru Games and was released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita simultaneously with Thieves in Time. This game is also a part of Sony's "Cross Buy" initiative, allowing purchasers of the PlayStation 3 version of the game to receive a free copy of the game for the PlayStation Vita via the PlayStation Network.^[24]

It received 7/10 from Destructoid^[25] and 73/100 from Official PlayStation Magazine Benelux.^[26]

Major characters

• Sly Cooper (voiced by Kevin Miller) is the protagonist of the series. He is a young male adult raccoon that is part of a long line of master thieves. Early in his life, he witnessed the savage murder of his father and mother at the hands of a group known as the Fiendish Five, who then stole his family's Thievius Raccoonus, which holds many of the Cooper clan's major thief moves. He was forced into an orphanage, where he met his best friends, Bentley and Murray. Over his years in the orphanage, the three pull off multiple thieving tasks, and soon, Sly decided to carry on the Cooper legacy by making the modern day Cooper Clan. Sly is nimblest of the gang, so he is sent out the most on missions, therefore making him the most played character. He uses a hooked cane, a family heirloom, as a multi-purpose tool. Sly is extremely athletic, and can perform feats such as walking on wires, landing on small points, sliding on vines, and falling from great heights while sustaining less damage. He can also use disguises as an advantage to get across easily-inaccessible areas. At one point, he tried to make a relationship with his former nemesis, Inspector Carmelita Fox. His signature color is blue.

• Bentley (voiced by Matt Olsen) is the brains of Sly's gang. He is a turtle who is skilled with computers, gadgets, and explosives, and generally helps with reconnaissance and mission-planning while Sly is out in the field, making him the de-facto leader after Sly. Soon, Bentley decides to help out in the field, but, later on, his legs are injured under the jaws of Clock-La, so he is forced into a wheelchair, which he handily equips with gadgets; he has since become more relaxed and confident in his abilities and himself. It is also stated that he co-constructed a time-machine along with his ex-girlfriend, Penelope, which served as the key object in the fourth game. His signature color is green.

• Murray (voiced by Chris Murphy) is the muscle of the Gang and Sly's full-time wheelman and part-time burden, in charge of driving the Cooper Gang's van to various locations. As a large pink hippopotamus, he is amazingly strong. He often ventures to the field on missions requiring such strength. When Bentley was injured, he blamed himself and left the Gang to the Australian Outback, looking for a more peaceful state of mind, but eventually returned when Bentley was attacked by Italian crime mob leader Don Octavio. He once began participating in the pro-driving circuit before switching to demolition derby. It is stated that he has developed a more serious personality. His signature color was as first pink, but now it is magenta.

• Carmelita Fox (voiced by Roxana Ortega in Sly 1, Alesia Glidewell in Sly 2, Ruth Livier in Sly 3, Grey DeLisle in Sly 4), a member of Interpol as a police officer, is Sly's nemesis, as well as a love interest. She is a vixen who has her mind set on capturing Sly and his crew, but also demonstrates some romantic feelings for him, which Sly often uses to escape capture at the last minute. In the fourth game, Carmelita begins to help out the Cooper gang, by aiding them in recovering the disappearing pages of the Thievius Raccoonus. At first, she was not very fond of Sly's love for her, but eventually warms up to him a bit. She uses a shock pistol as her weapon of choice, which contains powerful blasts and a lock-on target feature. Her signature color is golden yellow.

Common gameplay elements

A screenshot from Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, showing Sly hiding from a guard. The blue lights to the left indicate Sly's thief senses, in this case, a wall that he can slide against.

The games are primarily a third person platform game. The player controls Sly or one of his companions through many missions of several levels, relying mostly on stealth to avoid encounters and alarms while collecting treasures or other items. Sly is very agile, and is able to use many of the features of the architecture for stealth, indicated to the player by a blue glow, explained in-game as a visible manifestation of Sly's "thief senses." For example, Sly can perch on the top of sharp points, climb up pipes, sneak along a narrow ledge, walk across a tight rope, or use his cane to swing from hooks. Sly also uses his cane to defeat foes, although it makes noise that may attract other foes. He prefers to use sneak attacks when possible because of his little endurance. Due to his heritage, Sly has a number of special moves that he learns through the games that can also increase his stealth or speed, or allow him to eliminate foes silently. The player also may play as Bentley with his gadgets, or Murray with his strength, and many minor companions in the third game. There are also mini-games scattered throughout the gameplay.

Each game is broken into a series of heists, and to accomplish the heist, Sly and his gang must complete several sub-missions. In the first game, each sub-mission was located on a level accessible from the main heist level, while the second and third games used a nonlinear, open world approach to have various missions located around the same large level. There is typically a boss fight at the end of each heist as the conclusion to the mission.

Comics

The cover of the second promotional Sly Cooper comic

Sly Cooper and other characters from the games were also featured in two comic books published in 2004 and 2005 by GamePro Magazine and DC Comics to promote the release of Sly 2: Band of Thieves and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves respectively. Both books are used to transition the story from one game to the next.

Issue #1 acted as a story between the first and second game, apparently taking place sometime within the 2 year span between them. The plot consists of two flashback stories. One is a flashback to the Cooper gang's first taste of thief work as children at the Happy Camper Orphanage (stealing cookies from a greedy sitter), and the other detailing the first time Carmelita and Sly met, which the two relay to each other with opposing points of view during a rare peaceful conversation with each other.

Issue #2 takes place after the events of Sly 2 and leads up to the events within Sly 3. The story is broken into four parts. The first part consists of Sly finding a member of his father's gang, McSweeny, in a maximum-security prison due to an invitation. McSweeny, an anthropomorphic, super strong walrus tells Sly of a massive vault on a remote island and its location which contains the accumulated treasure of all the Cooper family members stating it as Sly's inheritance. Part two details Sly and Murray breaking into a hospital to rescue the injured Bentley from the authorities, though at the end, Murray demands that Sly flee with Bentley while he stays behind to deal with the officers. Part three consists of Carmelita reviewing footage of Sly and Murray's attempt (with Bentley notably absent) to steal the map to the Cooper Vault's location from a Venetian museum. But Sly later breaks into her office while she is asleep and steals the vault map from under Carmelita's nose. The final part takes place at the Cooper gang's home in Paris, with Sly reviewing what is needed to get to the vault, while Bentley works on arming his wheelchair with a wide array of gadgets and weaponry to help Sly in the field. Murray returns after his escape and informs the others that he is leaving the gang and disappears to parts unknown.

Film adaptation

Sly Cooper is a CGI animated film that is set to be released in the first quarter of 2016. Adapting the story of the first game, the film is a collaboration between Blockade Entertainment and Rainmaker Entertainment. Written and directed by Kevin Munroe and produced by Brad Foxhoven and David Wohl, this will be Blockade and Rainmaker's second video game-to-film adaptation after the upcoming 2015 film adaptation of fellow Sony franchise Ratchet & Clank.^[3] Carmelita Fox and Clockwerk will also be in the film.^[4] A teaser trailer was released on January 28, 2014.^[27]

See also

• Sanzaru Games
• Jak and Daxter
• Ratchet & Clank
• PlayStation Move Heroes
• HD Collections

References

External links

• Official Sly Cooper Website
• Sucker Punch Productions
• Sanzaru Games, Inc.
• Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (PS2)
• Sly 2: Band of Thieves (PS2)
• Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (PS2)
• The Sly Collection (PS3)
• Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time (PS3)
• Official "Sly Cooper" Movie Website